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Re: Special delivery arrived

Re: Special delivery arrived

Another Rogue using Jumbo frames? Don't you know the new age beekeeper uses all mediums in eight frame hives? My new trick is using 30+ year old treatment free foundations stacked, one 5 1/4" and one a bit taller instead of ordering new polluted foundation.

Re: Special delivery arrived

I am interested in trying one of these hives as well. Bluegrass, do you build the boxes yourself?--I thought I remember one of the wooden ware makers advertizing the ablity to make custom box sizes but I cannot remember which one. You could easy make a simple box using 3/4 inch pine but being so large and heavy it would be nice to have finger joints.

Re: Special delivery arrived

A shallow super stacked on top of a medium super adds up to about 12 1/4", or 1" deeper than an 11 1/4" frame. If you splice this combination together it will be a bit too deep but the worst thing that will happen is that you get a bit of ladder comb on the bottom of the frames. This is an easy way to get the box depth you need and if you change your mind you will still have two re-useable boxes left over. I have also sawed down deep supers and added about 2" of them to deep to make a Jumbo depth box. 1X12 lumber is usually too shallow to use by 3/8" of an inch.

Re: Special delivery arrived

You can practice "eke" beekeeping and add a shim (eke) to the bottom of your deep boxes to gain the 11.75 depth box.

I traded 10 packages of bees for the hives through another member on here, but in the future will build the boxes myself. I am separating all my equipment; my Dadant stuff will be set up here in CT and all my Langstroth stuff I am sending to my yards in VT. I suspect that eventually everything will be Dadant size. The only reason I can think that they went out of style in the USA is that sawmills standardized and stopped milling anything over 1x12 and you need a 1x13 to make Dadant depth boxes. The boom of portable sawmill operators has made the 1x13 available again so maybe they will make a slight comeback. Or 2 1x8s joined together make a board deep enough to cut the boxes from. And there is always plywood which is what the commercial Modified Dadants available in Great Britain are made out of.

Re: Special delivery arrived

Originally Posted by odfrank

Another Rogue using Jumbo frames? Don't you know the new age beekeeper uses all mediums in eight frame hives? My new trick is using 30+ year old treatment free foundations stacked, one 5 1/4" and one a bit taller instead of ordering new polluted foundation.

I think Charles Dadant was just ahead of the curve. With the additional depth and wider width I expect the Dadant hives to winter better than the Langs. The extra width adds more insulation to the cluster and the depth gives them more time before they have to move up.

I haven't ever really understood the less weight argument... I get excited when I try and lift a heavy box. Being a beekeeper who is opposed to heavy boxes is like being a chef who doesn't like the heat of a kitchen... it just doesn't work that way.

Re: Special delivery arrived

I agree I think we get too stagnant in our beekeeping. Why not try new things and new (old) things and experiment? There is no innovation any more. Then the worst part is when a beekeeper posts something new and inventive or out of the box he/she gets barrated. Not on this thread, so far, but you know what I mean. Group hug now. :-D

Re: Special delivery arrived

>The extra width adds more insulation to the cluster and the depth gives them more time before they have to move up.

I think they winter worse at wider spacing as they can't warm brood without a lot more bees.

" it will certainly require more bees to fill and keep warm a 5/8 than a 1/2 inch space. In a 1/2" inch space, the breeding bees from two combs facing each other will join with their backs, and so close up the space between the two brood combs. If this space is widened to 5/8 the bees cannot do this, and more bees will be required to keep up the needed brood- rearing temperature. What a drawback this would be in a cool spring, when our colonies are still weak in numbers, yet breeding most desirable, can readily be understood."--Julius Hoffman

" Mr.Woodbury,--whose authority on the modern plans for keeping bees is of great weight,--finds the 7/8 of an inch bar an improvement, because with them the combs are closer together, and require fewer bees to cover the brood. "-- Alfred Neighbour, The Apiary, or, Bees, Bee Hives, and Bee Culture...

Re: Special delivery arrived

The wider box doesn't change the space between the combs because they are 11 frame boxes. The insulation factor I am referring to is that of the extra frame between the side of the box and the cluster.

Re: Special delivery arrived

Do you know if they will fit in an extractor? I suppose they might fit some radial extractors?

I may have missed it, do you put foundation in them or go foundationless?

Tom

The frames fit in imported extractors (the Chinese ones everybody sells now days) The imports are actually universal extractors and are built to meet the needs of multiple countries that use other hives.

I don't know if they fit in the newer American made stuff like Maxant. But they fit in most extractors that are over 20-30 years old.